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2017 Rally Finland – Location Photos

Securing second positon at this weekend’s Neste Rally Finland, Elfyn Evans and Daniel Barritt put in a stunning performance to contradict the assumption that time cannot be recovered at such high speeds.

Having missed their pre-event test, the Brits struggled with the balance of their DMACK-shod Ford Fiesta WRC through the opening day – languishing in seventh position after the first thirteen stages.

But as the conditions improved, Evans found a more favourable set-up and the confidence to boot. With his newfound momentum, the Welshman became the field’s comeback kid and set a number of consistently strong times – including the fastest time through second pass of Päijälä (SS21) – to climb five places from seventh to second.

Starting today’s action in fourth place, Evans was locked in an intense battle for the podium positions – 1.3 seconds adrift of third and 5.6 seconds adrift of second.

As the fight entered the final stage, Evans was in third place – 0.9 seconds shy of equalling his best result of the season. Posting the second fastest time, he secured second place by just 0.3 seconds to claim his first podium on Finland’s legendary roads.

We’re really chuffed to come away from Rally Finland with second place – especially as that wasn’t looking likely on Friday evening. We kept at it, kept pushing and managed to claw our way back up the leader board. It’s a really positive way to finish the weekend.

Friday was a very difficult day for us. We started without a test and were really struggling with the balance of the car throughout that opening day. We made some changes which helped quite a lot and the longer stages and drier conditions helped too. We started making our way up the order and it all went from there.

Going into this morning, it was a very difficult situation to be in. There was an element of wanting to push for the best result, but at the same time it was really important to secure good points for the team. It wasn’t an all-out attack, but it all worked out in the end. It’s not the win, but it’s still a strong weekend and we can be pleased with the job we have done this weekend.